In diseases which require immune management, the treating physician aims to replace specific undesirable immune responses with healthier, more beneficial immunity. Many illnesses are characterized by undesirable, overly active immune responses whereas other diseases are characterized by insufficiently effective immune activity.
Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,918, where it is shown that extracorporeal irradiation of the blood (ECIB) can be used to selectively suppress immunity to transplants while leaving the general immunity unimpaired. In that patent, a method of treatment was described in which the immune system of the body was taught by ECIB, selectively to disregard the "foreign body" aspect of the transplant which causes rejection symptoms and consequent failure of the transplant to occur, without affecting the general immunity of the body which is available to fight other disease.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of immune modification in human patients by means of extracorporeal irradiation of blood.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method of treatment for auto-immune diseases and for diseases characterized by immune insufficiency.